Stuck
by ImJudyGarland
Summary: Nick and Jess get stuck in a closet in the loft. One-shot. Comments/suggestions are welcome!


Nick rubbed his eyes hard with the heels of his palms til bursts of orange, yellow and red appeared. How exactly does something like this happen? Well, the first thing you do is you let a woman talk you into calling into work for the night. That was mistake number one. If he had just ignored her as usual, he'd be mixing mai tais for blonde 20-somethings at the bar right now. Instead he was sitting on a cold hard wood floor, wedged in under jackets and between boxes. Jess sat next him, legs crossed, her mini-skirt barely covering the tops of her bare legs. He sighed deeply, trying to cover the tension he felt at being so confined and so close to her at the same time.

Nick and Jess were stuck. Yes, you could easily get a metaphor out of this situation, but _literally,_ they were stuck. In a closet.

It had only been 20 minutes but it may as well have been 20 yrs, because Nick was already at his breaking point.

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming swimming swimming," Jess sang, impersonating a blue and yellow fish from a kids movie she recently made Nick watch. "You gotta calm down Nick. Look at this in a positive way. Time away from everything in a quiet place." Quiet? Was she kidding? "Jess, you have literally not stopped talking for the last half hour. Quiet is not gonna happen here." Conveniently, both of their cell phones were on the coffee table in the common area of the loft. Out of reach.

Nick was complaining about the double shifts he had worked at the bar for the last week. "Nick, why don't you just call in sick. Take a personal day. You've been working really hard lately, and I can see it wearing on you. This morning you yelled at a bird that was just sitting on the railing of the balcony."

"It was looking at my hair judgmentally, Jess! I swear it said the words _hipster quiff_."

Nick was tired. So tired that he had actually agreed with Jess that taking a night off was probably not a bad idea. Walking in front of her into a closet with an already broken lock, however...that was the second mistake of the evening.

Nick was reaching for a box on the top shelf that Jess asked him to get down. The second he heard the door click shut, he froze. "Why would you shut the door behind you Jess? It's a tiny closet. Who shuts a closet door behind them when they're getting something out of it! And you know the the lock is broken! WHY Jess?"

So here they sat, alone together in a shadowy closet with barely inches separating them from each other. Nick had been having a hard enough time keeping his mind off of his quirky roomate under everyday circumstances. More than once he had walked into their shared bathroom to see her emerging from a shower, towel hugging her damp body, hair handing in wet ropes down her smooth back. Or falling asleep on the couch at night, and waking up to find her head had accidentally slid down onto his shoulder. Once he let himself sit there for an hour, just listening to her breathe.

But this was different. They were awake, aware and completely alone. No place to run.

Jess pressed her lips together in slight exasperation. Resigning herself to the futility of the situation, she determined to make the best of a bad night...and a grumpy roomate.

"Look Nick, we've tried everything. We're obviously not getting out of here til one of the guys gets home. Hey, I know, let's play a game! Word association! I say a word, and you say the first thing that comes to your mind." Nick rolled his eyes in the semi-dark space and leaned his head against the wall.

"This is gonna be great! Ready? Ok..."

"Pajamas!"

"Annoying."

"Landlord."

"Eck...Creepy."

"Turtles."

"Ha! Amazing."

"Apricots..."

"Sweet tangy balls?" After a short pause, they both laughed loudly. "You were a little out of control that day Nick. I was starting to really worry about you. I thought you were about to go buy a six pack and a Red Ryder and stake out Edgar's house all night." Julius Pepperwood, man of action!

"You don't know how close I was to forming a posse with Schmidt and Winston and going all 'home invasion' on that guy." His laugh died down. He thought for a minute and quietly added, "I would've done what I had to, Jessica, if it kept you safe...it was worth it."

He felt her lean into his side slightly. He sat still, enjoying her warmth. "You've always taken care of me, Nick. Always been there when I needed someone. When Spencer broke up with me, you were the first person who made me believe that I was worth more than the woman he had tried to mold me to be."

"You are more than that Jess. That clown was never gonna see the person you really are...the woman I know...and care about."

She smiled and lightly elbowed his arm. "That goes both ways, Nick. You always seem to end up with women who look down on you and see you as a project that needs work to become who they think you should be. But you are Nick Miller, and you are just right, just the way you are."

The mood had gradually shifted. Nick sat with his hand resting on his knee. Jess moved her hand over to rest on his. Nick flinched a little, then relaxed as she gently squeezed her palm over the back of his hand. "Wow, we get deep when we're alone in closets together, huh?" Nick turned his head toward her and laughed softly, his breath feathering lightly against her cheek. "Yeah, I guess so," Their shoulders pressed against each other in the darkness, and Jess tried to breath evenly. She moved her head slightly to the right and let her gaze rise upward. His eyes were turned down and looking straight into hers. They sat that way for a moment, listening to each other breathe.

Nick felt a burst of bravery come over him. He leaned closer. "Jessica, can I ask you something," he whispered against the corner of her mouth. "Uh...uh huh, yeah..." she managed to answer back, her breath shallow, her voice wavering.

"How soft are your lips?" He sat quietly, waiting for her to respond. "My lips...?" she murmured, understanding the question, but not quite able to get a clear answer from her brain.

"Is that weird to say? Because I've always kind of wondered..." His voice began to trail off. Was this Nick Miller saying these things to her? Before her foggy mind could generate a halfway decent response, his lips brushed gently against hers. She held her breath for a minute, then let herself press her lips back onto his. His hand moved from is knee to circle around her waist. Her hands slid up his chest and around his neck, pulling him down into her as he kissed her with more intensity. She pushed her body up towards his and he molded himself to her.

The loft's front door slammed shut. "Nick!" Schmidt hollered, "We gotta talk parking spot again. Outside Dave took it upon himself to spit-wash my entire car, then demand half a hot ham sandwich for payment!"

They gently pulled apart and kept quiet, listening to Schmidt rant on and on, just staring at each other for several minutes. Nick slowly stood up. He reached down and took her hand, pulling her up beside him. "In here Schmidt, we're stuck," he yelled half-heartedly, not knowing if wanted to be heard or not. Light from the crack in the door cast lightly over their faces, enough that Jess could see Nick's brown eyes as he moved in closer to her, ready to claim one more kiss.

"Nick? What are you doing in there" Schmidt turned the door handle and the door opened, just as her lips moved down away from his. He digustedly glared at them. "Look guys, I don't wanna know. But in terms of safety...condom stash, black box, top right shelf."


End file.
